Related>> Frank Marshall: Netflix would be ‘great place’ for ‘The Other Side of the Wind’
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By RAY KELLY
Netflix could complete Orson Welles’ unfinished The Other Side of the Wind and stream it to its 75 million subscribers worldwide in the coming months under the terms of a deal now being negotiated.
The two-picture deal – which still needs to win the approval of rights co-owner Oja Kodar – would include the completion of the feature film for theatrical and streaming release and creation of a full-length documentary.
For several months, producers have been tight-lipped about the status of The Other Side of the Wind. Fans have been understandably edgy after donating $406,405 to an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign last summer to help edit the more than 40-year-old footage. In probing the lengthy delay, Wellesnet confirmed from multiple sources that the deal with Kodar had to be rewritten to include the producers’ recent partnership with Netflix.
Netflix is planning a massive slate of original programming this year, including a dozen movies. Its recent original films have included Beasts of No Nation and the sequel to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Rumors that the streaming giant had joined forces with producers Filip Jan Rymsza, Frank Marshall and Jens Koethner Kaul began to float around in late summer. Since then, Wellesnet has learned more about the extent of the $5 million-plus deal, which the parties have been haggling over for the past six months.
Sasha Welles, Kodar’s nephew and representative in the talks, acknowledged Netflix’s participation in an email exchange with Wellesnet. He has indicated negotiations have not gone as smoothly as he had hoped. A spokesman for Rymsza refused to confirm or deny Netflix’s involvement, while the California-based streaming service declined comment.
The road to complete The Other Side of the Wind has had more than its fair share of twists and turns.
A front page story in The New York Times on October 29, 2014 first trumpeted the agreement between Kodar and the producers that would have paid her approximately $1.3 million in exchange for all of her rights to the negative in a Paris laboratory and the workprint. The relationship reportedly soured after Kodar balked at having any of the material inspected by a third party, a condition that had to be met in order to trigger her payment. (Sasha Welles claims his aunt never objected to an inspection and lays the fault entirely with Rymsza.) Kodar’s camp viewed the non-payment as a breach of the original contract. Furthermore, Rymsza needed to attract a suitable distributor to raise the balance of the financing for the film’s completion. Understandably, distributors wanted to see footage from the negative, which was not possible without access to the negative.
According to a detailed $4.97 million budget obtained by Wellesnet (dated June 11, 2015, and prepared prior to Netflix’s involvement), Rymsza at that time was slated to pay Kodar $1.335 million for her rights, having already bought the shares held by Les Films de l’Astrophore and the family of the late Mehdi Boushehri. Packaging and shipping of the negative, 4K scanning, color correction, editing, music and other related post-production costs were pegged at $1.695 million.
The nine-page budget reveals that producers flew Sasha Welles from Croatia to Los Angeles for an 11-week stay in early 2015. His airfare, lodging, travel and per diem paid by producers totaled $38,336. According to Sasha Welles, he made that trip believing Kodar’s payment had been arranged and put his life on hold for four months in hopes the matter could be resolved. Also revealed in the budget was that producers had already spent $69,034 on legal fees by June 11, 2015.
Beyond the dollars and cents – and more important to Welles fans – a production timeline revealed that completion of The Other Side of the Wind would take 13 to 18 weeks.
But by the time that plan was drawn up, Kodar’s camp had grown unhappy with the delays and believed the October 2014 agreement was now null and void and had to be redrawn. They claimed the producers had breached the original contract when they failed to deposit funds and create an escrow by the date originally agreed.
Rymsza refused to give up and in the months that followed, he sought out new investors and finally grabbed the big brass ring when he partnered with Netflix. By the nature of its business model, the global streaming service, now available in 190 countries, requires worldwide distribution rights to Welles’ unfinished film. (Kodar had been holding onto the Croatian rights, according to Sasha Welles.) In return for global rights, Netflix has offered to pay Kodar substantially more than the $1.335 million she was promised in the October 2014 agreement.
Whether Kodar will accept the latest financial and distribution terms remains to be seen.
Film historian Joseph McBride, an Other Side of the Wind cast member who spearheaded a 1999 completion effort with Showtime until he was sacked by Bogdanovich and Kodar, has publicly accused her of continually obstructing the current deal by making incessant demands of the producers. Bogdanovich speculated at a gathering of Welles experts in Southern California last fall that there could be “psychological” issues at play, such as unwillingness by Kodar to let go of the film.
Asked about the status of the negotiations with Netflix, Rymsza and Marshall, Sasha Welles expressed frustration in an April 2 email to Wellesnet.
“For decades we have been optimistic, otherwise we wouldn’t be trying for so long to get this film released,” Sasha Welles said. “How optimistic should we be about this particular deal? Hard to tell. We have been dealing with Filip’s not-so-honest claims and promises; Frank brings the only legitimacy and fairness to their side. All in all, I am not so optimistic since they keep on chiseling away from our old agreement. Every time I give in to something they want, they come up with something else, this keeps going on and on and I don’t know where the end is.”
The extent of the current impasse can be judged by the fact that the same kind of accusations have been traded by supporters of both sides. What is unclear is the limit of Netflix’s patience given that its lawyers have spent six months haggling over an unfinished movie that is unlikely to have the broad commercial appeal of House of Cards or Orange Is the New Black.
For Wellesians, the situation is maddening since Netflix offers The Other Side of the Wind the type of prestigious worldwide distribution Welles could never have imagined in his wildest dreams.
So, once again, cross your fingers and “Hope for the best – expect the worst,” as Mel Brooks would put it.
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